ISPs think Conroy is incompetent on Internet filtering: iiNet boss

By Stan Beer
Wednesday, 19 November 2008 14:21

Government Tech Policy

Mr Malone said that the $44 million the Government is purporting to spend on ISP filtering would not be nearly enough to cover Australia's more than 700 ISPs.

"I can tell you that if all the ISPs were to be involved it will cost a lot more than that." he said.

According to Mr Malone, the only way to effectively filter the Internet is in the home.

"What's good for a six year old boy is not going to work for a 15 year old girl who needs to do research for high school assignments. A one-size fits all approach to filtering will never work," Mr Malone said.

Mr Malone said that Senator Conroy should listen to SAGE-AU (the System Administrators Guild of Australia) which has stated that the proposed filtering system is not technicallly sound.

"Senator Conroy knows all this. His own figures show that the proposed system will slow the Internet down between 2% and 86%. Yet he won't listen to anyone. He's the worst Minister in the Rudd Government."

To date no major ISP other than iiNet has committed to participating in the trial.

Primus CEO, Ravi Bhatia, told iTWire that the broadband provider was still considering its position on the matter.

"There's still 18 days to go before the closing date of submissions," he said.

iTWire rang Senator Conroy's office for a response and was asked to contact spokesman Tim Marshall by email. An email was sent this afternoon to Mr Marshall containing the gist of Mr Malone's comments. As this was posted, a reply has yet to be received.